Complete intersections in binomial and lattice ideals

For the family of graded lattice ideals of dimension 1, we establish a complete intersection criterion in algebraic and geometric terms. In positive characteristic, it is shown that all ideals of this family are binomial set theoretic complete intersections. In characteristic zero, we show that an arbitrary lattice ideal which is a binomial set theoretic complete intersection is a complete intersection.Comment: Internat. J. Algebra Comput., to appea

Prime splittings of Determinantal Ideals

We consider determinantal ideals, where the generating minors are encoded in a hypergraph. We study when the generating minors form a Gr\"obner basis. In this case, the ideal is radical, and we can describe algebraic and numerical invariants of these ideals in terms of combinatorial data of their hypergraphs, such as the clique decomposition. In particular, we can construct a minimal free resolution as a tensor product of the minimal free resolution of their cliques. For several classes of hypergraphs we find a combinatorial description of the minimal primes in terms of a prime splitting. That is, we write the determinantal ideal as a sum of smaller determinantal ideals such that each minimal prime is a sum of minimal primes of the summands.Comment: Final version to appear in Communications in Algebr

Colorings and Sudoku Puzzles

Map colorings refer to assigning colors to different regions of a map. In particular, a typical application is to assign colors so that no two adjacent regions are the same color. Map colorings are easily converted to graph coloring problems: regions correspond to vertices and edges between two vertices exist for adjacent regions. We extend these notions to Shidoku, 4x4 Sudoku puzzles, and standard 9x9 Sudoku puzzles by demanding unique entries in rows, columns, and regions. Motivated by our study of ring and field theory, we expand upon the standard division algorithm to study Gr\ obner bases in multivariate polynomial rings. We utilize Gr\ obner bases of an ideal of a multivariate polynomial ring over a finite field to solve coloring, Shidoku, and Sudoku problems. In the last section, we note Gr\ obner bases are also well-suited to hypergraph coloring problems

An Abstraction of Whitney's Broken Circuit Theorem

We establish a broad generalization of Whitney's broken circuit theorem on the chromatic polynomial of a graph to sums of type $\sum_{A\subseteq S} f(A)$ where $S$ is a finite set and $f$ is a mapping from the power set of $S$ into an abelian group. We give applications to the domination polynomial and the subgraph component polynomial of a graph, the chromatic polynomial of a hypergraph, the characteristic polynomial and Crapo's beta invariant of a matroid, and the principle of inclusion-exclusion. Thus, we discover several known and new results in a concise and unified way. As further applications of our main result, we derive a new generalization of the maximums-minimums identity and of a theorem due to Blass and Sagan on the M\"obius function of a finite lattice, which generalizes Rota's crosscut theorem. For the classical M\"obius function, both Euler's totient function and its Dirichlet inverse, and the reciprocal of the Riemann zeta function we obtain new expansions involving the greatest common divisor resp. least common multiple. We finally establish an even broader generalization of Whitney's broken circuit theorem in the context of convex geometries (antimatroids).Comment: 18 page